I won't go into great detail about why this game is bad. There are several great detailed reviews that delve into that here already (as well as Spoony's very long but very accurate video you can find on his site) so if you still need to read a list of the broken features this game has keep scrolling, you will find it. Instead I have a story about why I own this game. You see I never bought Ultima IX. Now don't misunderstand me, I didn't steal or pirate it, and I owned several of the prior games before this so I am in fact a fan. It just happened to come out at a time when there were other games to play and the early reviews in PC Gamer and CGW were quite harsh. Now my friend, we'll call him Bob, was an Ultima superfan. Bob had been a fan of the series since a small kid, owned all of the games, and it's no exaggeration to say that his love for this series and the King's Quest games (which also met an gruesome death from a bad couple of games) lead him down has path that set him into computer science. Bob ignored the bad reviews and bought the game anyway. For the couple of weeks he played it I talked very little to him about (it was High School, we did have other things going) but I did make sure to ask to borrow it from him when he was done. So one day he comes up to me after class and hands me the disc and says "Keep it". Weird but okay I'll take it. My own play experience was similar to that of people here. Constant crashes, terrible gameplay, and shock and horror over hearing the goddamn Avatar ask what a paladin was. I was unable to complete the game; too many crashes and frankly there was too much else good to play at the time. I decided to return the game to Bob. I went over to his house, we hung out and commiserated over the death of poor Ultima. When it was time for me to leave I left the game sitting on his desk, really thinking nothing of it. Before I got in my car I walked down the block to a place where a friend of ours worked to say hi. When I returned there was U9, sitting on my car. Naturally I marched right back to his door to give it back. "I don't want it back" he said "that piece of shit is like a disease." For months we passed it back and forth trying to sneak it back into the other's possession. I'd find it under the seat of my car, then put it in his backpack the next day. Bob would slip it in my house with the help of one of our friends, I'd go to Bob's when he wasn't home and leave it with his Mom hoping she'd guilt him into keeping it. Eventually though attrition he won. I moved off to college and the game was boxed up along with my stuff. I would never try to hurt GoG or take sales away from them so let me put it this way. There are dozens of fantastic RPGs here, if you are even the least bit curious about buying this game I beg of you to please go find another game in this catalog here and get that instead. You will not regret it. Just recently I found a box of stuff in my Dad's garage. In it was that copy of Ultima IX. Once it's yours you can never get rid of the disease.
